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Carla dal Forno taps into the power of vulnerability on Confession
Carla dal Forno Tue 9/15 at Empty Bottle The post Carla dal Forno taps into the power of vulnerability on <i>Confession</i> appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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L’Rain imagines new futures through experimental pop and rock
L'Rain Fri 9/18 at Constellation The post L’Rain imagines new futures through experimental pop and rock appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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Heavy Chicago veterans Rezn soar to new heights on Cycles in the Infinite Dream
Rezn Sat 9/19 at Thalia Hall The post Heavy Chicago veterans Rezn soar to new heights on Cycles in the Infinite Dream appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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Harley Go’Lightly holds your deepest confessions in Vessel
Vessel, Sat 8/30 and Fri 9/4, Newport Theater The post Harley Go’Lightly holds your deepest confessions in <i>Vessel</i> appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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Marvin Tate gets intimate with words on his new solo album
West-side native Marvin Tate has been part of Chicago’s music scene for more than 30 years. He’s a bandleader, a poet, a visual and performing artist, a cultural organizer, and an educator—one thing...
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Punk Black FOH Fest says yes to POC punk and metal and says no to ICE
Punk Black FOH Fest Fri 9/11 at Beat Kitchen The post Punk Black FOH Fest says yes to POC punk and metal and says no to ICE appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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Berlin-based Afro-fusion group Jembaa Groove want to spread the love
Jembaa Groove Sat 9/12 at Sleeping Village The post Berlin-based Afro-fusion group Jembaa Groove want to spread the love appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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HystericalFest makes its debut in Evanston
HystericalFest: Women+ Act Out, 8/28–8/30 at Piven Theatre Workshop, Noyes Cultural Arts Center, Evanston The post HystericalFest makes its debut in Evanston appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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Illinois’s physical mail ban has made it even more difficult to access books...
Books are a big part of prison culture: You have to whittle away the hours in a place like this, and many of us do that by reading, discussing, and sharing books between each other. The hardest part...
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Culinary Transmissions
Bridgeport’s nonprofit cultural center, Co-Prosperity, is hosting a series of artist-led meals called Community Kitchen Dinners: Recipes for Survivance. Each dinner features food and storytelling...
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Dos Santos offer love as resistance on the new Es Amor
This year has been a whirlwind of creative energy struggling to find expression amid alarming, disorienting, and catastrophic events that seem to be happening everywhere. Even the joy feels heavy....
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Eventize or die?
The Moviegoer is the diary of a local film buff, collecting the best of what Chicago’s independent and underground film scene has to offer. In preparing to write this column, I went to Google News and...
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Puff, puff, hard pass on Vape! The Grease Parody
Vape! The Grease Parody, through 1/3, Apollo Theater The post Puff, puff, hard pass on <i>Vape! The Grease Parody</i> appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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In Sisters, a human woman and an AI sibling form an uneasy bond
Sisters, through 11/8 at Writers Theatre, Glencoe The post In <i>Sisters</i>, a human woman and an AI sibling form an uneasy bond appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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Advance Man explores the aftermath of space
Advance Man: Part One of the Honeycomb Trilogy , through 9/27, Strawdog Theatre Company at Factory Theater The post <i>Advance Man</i> explores the aftermath of space appeared first on...
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Henry IV, Part 1 takes us to the tavern
Henry IV, Part 1, through 8/30, Sandbox Theatre Collective at Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro The post <i>Henry IV, Part 1</i> takes us to the tavern appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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Adolescent Salvation is mostly sharp, smart—and gasp-inducing
Adolescent Salvation, through 10/3 at Theater Wit The post <i>Adolescent Salvation</i> is mostly sharp, smart—and gasp-inducing appeared first on Chicago Reader.
View ArticleBest Phone Sex Numbers with Free Trials of 2026
In a world dominated by dating apps and instant messaging, phone sex numbers offer something refreshingly intimate: real-time, unscripted, and deeply personal erotic connection. There’s a reason these...
View ArticleBest AI Hentai Generators of 2026
AI-generated hentai sits at a provocative crossroads where fantasy meets technology, and desire is woven into each and every line of code. Once a niche corner of anime fandom, hentai has since evolved...
View ArticleBest Phone Chat Line Numbers with Free Trials of 2026
In 2026, phone chat lines remain a fun, personal, and exciting way to connect with others, whether you’re single, looking for casual conversations, or seeking something more intimate. Unlike dating...
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Butter returns to Indianapolis
“Butter Art Fair" 9/3-9/6 at the Stutz The post Butter returns to Indianapolis appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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A city within a city
This story is part of Quantum Crossroads, a series examining the impact of the quantum computing megadevelopment in South Chicago. “Steel is rising once again in South Chicago,” announced a March...
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The day the laughter died
I hate the phrase “artists who use humor in their work,” it sounds like saying “masturbators who use hands to fuck themselves.” Is comedy such a remarkably novel way of addressing problems of...
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City of Lights is a true crime podcast that tells the truth
Often, in true crime stories, there’s a narrative urge to make something of the terrible experience endured by the people at the story’s heart. As the reader (or listener, in the case of podcasts), we...
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Time stops at Pueblo Unido Gallery
“NEPO" through 10/1 at Pueblo Unido Gallery The post Time stops at Pueblo Unido Gallery appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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Icons, up-and-comers, and William Shatner converge at Riot Fest 2026
Riot Fest Fri 9/18-Sun 9/20 at Douglass Park The post Icons, up-and-comers, and William Shatner converge at Riot Fest 2026 appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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Busy Madison musician Graham Hunt makes indie rock feel new again
Graham Hunt Mon 9/21 at Subterranean The post Busy Madison musician Graham Hunt makes indie rock feel new again appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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The Bridgeport Records crew launches a new shop in West Town
Two weekends from now, Chicago will welcome its newest music store: Onion City Records. Bridgeport Records co-owners Vick Lavender and Jerry Morrison soft launched a new brick-and-mortar shop at 1812...
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Every month, every day, every hour
Content note: This story discusses attempted suicide. Prison conditions emphasize power structures that exist in society, further harming the most vulnerable among us. After serving almost 20 years in...
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Southeast Spotlight: Smoke’s Bistro
Smoke’s Bistro1225 E. 87th St., Mon, Wed, Thu, and Fri, 4 PM–9PM, Sat 3 PM–9 PM, Sun 11 AM–6 PM, Closed Tuesdays (773) 708-1606, smokesbistro.com, Email chefsmoke@smokesbistro.com, Instagram...
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Inside Tuley Park’s community darkroom
The Darkroom Chicago began with my belief that adults deserve more places to be curious. There are not many spaces where we can explore a new interest without enrolling in a class, paying for a...
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Microcinemas and movie clubs are thriving in Chicago
Many movies are made to be seen on big silver screens; all movies are made to be seen sitting alongside others. Chicago has long been the midwestern movie mecca for audiences and filmmakers alike, and...
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How comedians eat it before and after grabbing the mike
On performance days, Jordan Wilson likes to caffeine- and carb-load. “Today I woke up and made my quad-shot oat latte, then for lunch I had a jerky stick and a plain bagel,” he says. “I really like...
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Seeding the Chicago theater field with new productions and companies
In July, Oskar Eustis, the celebrated longtime artistic director of New York’s Public Theater (the venue where both A Chorus Line and Hamilton were birthed), announced he would be leaving his position...
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For the love of the game
How do art exhibitions get made? For major institutions like the Art Institute of Chicago, entire teams of people can spend months or years putting a show together. From the ideation phase to the time...
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Chicago Reader Volume 55, Number 20
Chicago Reader Volume 55, No. 20. September 2026. The Fall Arts Issue. The post Chicago Reader Volume 55, Number 20 appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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Record scratching breaks containment again
In spring 2025, Henry Stoehr and Emily Massey of Chicago indie-rock band Slow Pulp started working on material for their next album. They’d spent much of the previous year and a half touring to...
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J’Uncle lacks dramatic connections
J'Uncle, through 9/13, Simple Theatre at Jarvis Square Theater The post <i>J’Uncle</i> lacks dramatic connections appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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Shane at City Lit centers the violence and beauty of the American west
Shane, through 10/4 at City Lit Theater The post <i>Shane</i> at City Lit centers the violence and beauty of the American west appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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The Missing Piece looks at the end of the world through the eyes of two clowns
The Missing Piece, through 9/20, Silent Theatre Company at Visceral Adventure Lounge The post <i>The Missing Piece</i> looks at the end of the world through the eyes of two clowns appeared...
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Elephant in the Womb is an in utero clown show
Elephant in the Womb, through 9/13, Black Cat Theatre at Theater Wit The post <i>Elephant in the Womb</i> is an in utero clown show appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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Joan Crawford Goes to Hell is devilishly fun
Joan Crawford Goes to Hell, through 9/27, Hell in a Handbag Productions at the Clutch The post <i>Joan Crawford Goes to Hell</i> is devilishly fun appeared first on Chicago Reader.
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Art isn’t easy, but Kokandy frames it well with Sunday in the Park With George
Sunday in the Park With George, through 11/1, Kokandy Productions at Chopin Theatre The post Art isn’t easy, but Kokandy frames it well with <i>Sunday in the Park With George</i> appeared...
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Planting the seeds
Chicago’s independent arts scenes run on those who show up for each other, again and again, until something new exists. These artists and curators usually wear every hat—funder, mediator, writer,...
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ASL interpreter Diego Diaz lives a life of joyful chaos
Where in the world is Diego Diaz? He isn’t answering my emails; he’s screening my calls. I felt like I was trying to get ahold of a celebrity, not the local American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter...
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Pan de jamón y queso at Aromadipan
The ageless duo of ham and cheese is applied to no fewer than eight different kinds of pastries and breads at this Venezuelan bakery. It’s stuffed inside (or draped atop) empanadas, pastelitos,...
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Sonic connections and thematic synergies
The Cinema Scrapbook places film screenings in conversation with other local creative happenings, illuminating Chicago’s rich cultural connectivity. September presents itself as a bittersweet mixed...
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Chicago has abundant water. Data center developers want a taste.
Waterways in Chicago and northern Illinois have supported industrial activity for more than a century, and now those same bodies of water are drawing an influx of proposed data centers that would tap...
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The art of producing
Before any performer twirls a tassel, drops into a split, or picks up a mike, there’s a producer writing emails, organizing spreadsheets, calling venues, crunching numbers, creating posters, tracking...
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Win Stracke dreamed of music as a path to peace
If you love the Old Town School of Folk Music, you might have heard of Win Stracke. But among famous people from Chicago, he might paradoxically be the least known. “How many people have heard the...
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